LIV accuses DP World Tour of player 'interference'

Key points

• LIV Golf accused the DP World Tour of interfering with its restructuring by refusing membership to LIV players next season.
• A LIV attorney said the organization would know by the end of the month if it can continue as 'LIV 2.0'.
• Judge Michael B. Kaplan said the comments he read 'do raise concerns' during a New Jersey Bankruptcy Court hearing.

LIV Golf has accused the DP World Tour of a 'clear attempt to interfere' with its restructuring process, after the European tour said it would refuse membership to anyone playing on the breakaway circuit next season. The accusation was made during a court hearing on Wednesday by Rob Fitzgerald of Gibson Dunn, the attorney representing LIV.

Fitzgerald said LIV was 'quite concerned' by the DP World Tour's stance and that the organization would know by the end of the month if it could continue in a 'LIV 2.0' guise. The DP World Tour declined to comment on his statement.

What the attorney said

Fitzgerald said the timing of the DP World Tour's position 'strikes us as a clear attempt to interfere with our process with our players and potentially our reorganisation writ large.' He added that it raises anti-competitive concerns similar to those LIV has expressed before about competing leagues seeking to exclude players from participating in LIV.

He said player freedom is the reason LIV Golf was created and the foundation of LIV Golf 2.0, a league built around its players. He added that it is unfortunate another tour is taking an opposite view and pressuring LIV players with a false choice.

The comments I have read do raise concerns.

— Judge Michael B. Kaplan

Court and tour responses

Judge Michael B. Kaplan, overseeing proceedings in the New Jersey Bankruptcy Court, replied: 'The comments I have read do raise concerns.' Fitzgerald said the 'two critical pieces' for LIV 2.0 were structural, relating to investment from BC Partners, and having enough players signed up by the 25th of this month. He said a decision on whether LIV would wind down or go forward would be made by the end of the month.

DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings told BBC Sport on Monday that 'players need to make a choice,' toughening the organization's policy. In previous years, conditional releases were struck with some top players, including Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, enabling them to play on both tours. LIV filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States in September after Saudi Arabia withdrew its multibillion-dollar funding. During Wednesday's hearing, 19 player contracts, including those of Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson, were rejected. LIV now owes its participants at least $45m (£33m).